


with or without you

by queenvernage



Category: Super Sentai Series, 快盗戦隊ルパンレンジャー VS 警察戦隊パトレンジャー | Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Disaster Gay Keiichiro Asaka, Grief/Mourning, Keiichiro thinks he doesn't love Kairi but he does, Lupin 2 is doing stuff in the background the whole time, M/M, Noel assembles his own team, Pining, Sakuya thinks he loves Umika but he doesn't, Shouri is a protective older brother who knows K-chan is exactly Kairi's type, Slow Burn, Tsukasa is Team Mom, Well... kinda, noel is the frenchiest fry, sakuya/umika but its so one sided it barely counts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2020-11-10 16:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 15,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20854556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenvernage/pseuds/queenvernage
Summary: "So, you knew my brother?""That's the question, isn't it? ...I wonder, who was Kairi, really? Did anyone really know him?” As soon as he’d said it out loud he realized the mistake he made. One look at Shouri’s face told him he had crossed a line.“Let’s begin by saying that my brother is not past-tense, officer.” Any trace of friendliness had drained from Shouri’s face and it became clear that the Yano brothers had both the same smile and the same frown. “People do know him, in the present-tense, and just because you weren’t able to see him in entirety doesn’t mean that no one has ever done that. It only means that you couldn’t.”--Kairi runs into a void headfirst and leaves behind a man who cares about him with a lot of questions in search of answers. Keiichiro takes a year trying to piece together who the real Kairi was.





	1. the moon glows, the river flows, but i die without you

**Author's Note:**

> "through the storm we reach the shore, you give it all but i want more. and i'm waiting for you. with or without you, i can't live with or without you." -with or without you, u2

The cursor blinking steadily, silently and surely on the blank document on Keiichiro’s computer screen mocked him. The report, he knew, wasn’t due to the commissioner until the end of the week, but still he couldn’t think where was the best place to start. He couldn’t even think of a place to start at all.

Should he write in his case notes, for example, that he had broken numerous GSPO protocols by meeting with a known fugitive? That he let Kairi Yano, who lived for a day as the Global Police’s most wanted man, walk away not once, but twice? That if given the opportunity, the only thing he would change is that he wanted to help that fugitive more? Or maybe even run into that void after him?

Logically, Keiichiro knew what to put in the report: Just the facts.

What were the facts? The only ones that came to mind were one: that Kairi Yano was Lupin Red, and two: that he was gone.

The consequences of those facts against Keiichiro’s heart and conscious rang through his mind like a tuning fork just one pitch too sharp. And still the cursor blinked.

The sudden but gentle rush of air and mechanical whirring of the doors to the Patoranger’s office didn’t even phase him, nor did the hesitant steps on the linoleum. Before he heard the voice he already knew who it was.

“Keiichiro, you should go home. Sakuya left hours ago.” Tsukasa’s calm voice was somewhat unnerving in the dark, most of all because she was right. 

With a sigh, Keiichiro minimized the window with the blinking cursor and slumped somewhat in his seat. He spun the chair to face her. She was wearing not her uniform or a suit, but street clothes -- a sure sign that she wasn’t here on business.

“I was just leaving. Why are _you_ still here?”

“I think ‘still’ is the wrong word.” She took a seat at the table in the middle of the room, resting her elbows on it. “I asked Jim to ping me if you were still here at 8. My place is nearby and I thought you might need dragging out of here. Looks like I wasn’t wrong.” 

As usual, her facial expression was trained and nearly unreadable. It probably  _ would  _ be unreadable if he hadn’t seen it in all its minute variations over the years of their working relationship. But this variation, this specific angle of the corners of her lips, this was worry and he was on the receiving end.

“Can I be honest with you, Tsukasa?”

“As a friend or as a colleague?”

A beat passed, but he reluctantly answered, “As my oldest and maybe only true friend.”

Her lips quirked into a smirk. “A bit sappy, but I’ll allow it this once. What is it?”

“Last night-- this morning really, I guess… I made a promise to someone to give up my position as an officer.” He lowered his gaze. “I told that person that I couldn’t let the system fail him anymore, that I would give up my badge to protect him because he was worth protecting.”

“And where is that someone now?” The way she asked it, with a sort of sadness and equal sureness, told him that she already knew.

“I know, but it doesn’t change the fact that I was going to do it.” He reached into the pocket on his uniform where he kept his badge and placed it on the table between them. “It also doesn’t change the fact that I wasn’t able to protect him either way, and maybe the fact that I was willing to give it up means that I don’t deserve to have it in the first place--”

“Nonsense.” When both her hands hit the table and she rose from her chair Keiichiro’s gaze shot up to meet hers. “You are a good officer, Keiichiro, and not because you’re Ichigo, or because you can protect helpless children or citizens or waiters from Ganglers. You’re good because you know where it is you can do _the most_ good, and that’s in your position as an officer.”

“That waiter wasn’t exactly helpless,” He muttered, grip tightening on his badge. Did Tsukasa ever get tired of being right?

“I won’t comment on that at this time.” She pushed in the chair beside her. “You’re not the only one who is going to miss them, okay? And my report isn’t going to be any easier to write than yours, so let’s come in tomorrow morning and try to write the facts of the case to the best of our abilities and then cry in our beers with Sakuya after work.”

“I don’t think I’m really going to feel like going out tomorrow.”

“You don’t have a choice,” She put on a fake smile. “It’s a request from your oldest and maybe only true friend.” This earned her the closest thing he could manage to a smile. “Tonight, I'm going let you go home and wallow and pine and over-analyze every decision you’ve made for one night only, because they were-- because _he_ was important to you. But tomorrow, you’re an officer. Got it?”

He wanted to protest (at the words “wallow” and “pine” in particular) but he decided instead to get up, gather his things and follow her out of the office with nothing to say but the somewhat pathetic murmur of “Yes, ma’am.”

* * *

“But I don’t want to go out drinking, sempai!” Sakuya whined, trailing behind Tsukasa and Keiichiro down the street. It wasn’t totally clear which of the two of them he was calling after, but Keiichiro decided to let Tsukasa take this one as the outing wasn’t his idea and he didn’t particularly disagree with his loud kouhai.

Logically, he knew what Tsukasa was doing-- it was what she always did in situations like this. She was imposing normalcy and order onto a cloud of emotions she was either unprepared or unwilling to deal with. Classic Tsukasa. While Keiichiro didn’t exactly enjoy being dragged into her own way of dealing with the grief, he could appreciate her grieving for what it was.

Soon enough, the three were crowded on bar stools around a table at the end of a dive bar in the heart of the city. Ironically, it was the bar Sakuya was always trying to organize work outings at because the owner sometimes let his band have the stage on weeknights. The trio had been only once before and Sakuya had smiled brightly then, filling his sempais’ glasses all night. 

Tonight, he looked miserable, and frankly like death. Tsukasa, beneath her carefully neutral expression, looked pretty worse for wear herself as she accepted the tray of drinks from the bartender and placed one of the beers in front of each of them.

Although maybe Keiichiro (who had done eight hours of work on one hour of sleep) wasn’t the best person to gauge how terrible others looked.

“Let’s toast,” Tsukasa announced. “To the successful arrest of Dogranio Yaboon and his syndicate… and to our friends at Bistro Jurer.”

Keiichiro hesitantly lifted his glass and nudged Sakuya to do the same. At the clink, they each drank, Sakuya and Keiichiro taking unsure, small sips while Tsukasa gulped in a fashion that could only be described as aggressive.

Before her glass could touch back down on the table, the sound of the television behind the bar grew slightly louder, catching the trio's attention. The bartender with the remote in his hand, along with half the patrons, seemed glued the nightly news anchor.

“--For this we turn to our correspondent outside Three Rivers University Hospital. Kohara, what can you tell us about the recently discovered missing persons being treated in the Gangler related injuries ward?”

The camera panned to a nervous looking young reporter outside the very hospital where two days ago, Umika and Touma were under GSPO supervision. All three officers turned to watch the report with interest.

“Hello, I am here at Three Rivers University Hospital where it is being reported that people who went missing over a year ago in a random Gangler attack are being treated for minor frostbite and psychological trauma. Among them are known associates of Kairi Yano and Touma Yoimachi, better known to the public as the Lupin Red and Blue respectively-- note that Lupin Yellow was identified as a female minor whose name we are unable to broadcast. 

"While these associates have declined to talk with reporters, it seems that their reappearance is shedding some light on the possible motivations of the phantom thieves that captivated the attention of our city this past year. Still the questions must be asked: who are these phantom thieves really, and where are they now? The GSPO has declined to make a statement until later this week when the Patorangers are scheduled to have a press conference--”

“We have to do a press conference too?” Sakuya whined once more before gulping the rest of his beer. “It’s bad enough that we don’t know how to get Umika and those guys back, why do we have to keep reliving this over and over?”

“It’s your responsibility to provide information that keeps the public safe, Sakuya.” Keiichiro chided, feeling only mildly guilty about the generous omissions that found their way into the draft of the report he worked on earlier that day.

"Besides," Tsukasa added. "It hasn't even been two full days. Some of this while blow over and our lives will go back to normal... Or as close to it as it gets now, anyway."

“But what about their lives when they come back? What are they going to come back to, huh? A world that thinks they’re unforgivable vigilanties? Or worse-- one that thinks they’re heroes, but heroes the GSPO tries to prosecute anyway?” 

_ When they come back _ . Keiichiro swallowed the bitterness of his own assessment that  _ when  _ was too generous.  _ If _ was more appropriate. And come back from where? They entered that void fearlessly, unapologetically and with no promise of return. That was all they could be held to.

“No matter how you look at it,” Sakuya sighed, “It’s like I didn’t know Umika at all.”

“Tsukasa,” Keiichiro said, choosing to ignore his kouhai’s musing. “Has anyone taken Shouri Yano’s statement yet?”

“I don’t know, probably.” She shrugged, swirling the remaining beer foam around in the bottom of her glass. “Why?”

“I have questions I think he might have answers to.”

And with that resolution, for the first time since he watched Kairi run head first into that void, Keiichiro took a breath that didn’t feel like a knife to the lung.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> local girl breaks years long fanfic silence to say that lupat is always fresh in my mind and it hurts too much to not do something about that.
> 
> happy toku-tober!


	2. you always smile but in your eyes your sorrow shows

Keiichiro had always kind of liked hospitals. They represented the best of humanity in his opinion, the sole ambition to help others. Unlike police officers, doctors didn’t have to take into account the actions of those they served. No judgement, just the human desire to make someone feel better.

Walking into Three Rivers University Hospital, however, he couldn’t think about that. All he could think about was how he was going to approach a person he had no right to look in the eyes. As he followed the receptionist through the Gangler Related Injuries Ward (a ward which he had been all too familiar with in the past year), he ran through his talking points in his head for what felt like the thousandth time until they landed at a room and the receptionist left him alone.

He peered into the room to see a man in a hospital gown sitting at a small table pushed up against the window. The man was reading a book by the light of the early morning sun filtering through the gauzy hospital curtains. Keiichiro wrung his hands against the bouquet he was carrying one last time before he cleared his throat and spoke up.

“Shouri Yano?” The name left Keiichiro’s mouth like a question, although it shouldn’t have. There was no mistaking this man for anyone other than Kairi’s brother. Nevertheless, Shouri looked up from the book he was reading and with recognition of who had called for him, he put it down.

“You’re Patren Ichigo,” Shouri stated, gesturing to the chair across from him. Keiichiro sat down tentatively. “I’ve already given my statement to that Officer Takao from the French GSPO branch. I don’t fully understand my case is their jurisdiction, but I’ve already said what I have to say.”

Of course Noel had taken his statement. He had probably already gotten to Aya Ohira and Shiho Ichinose as well.

“I am a Patranger, but I’m not here for your official statement,” Keiichiro answered, laying the bouquet on the table between them, a peace offering of sorts. The red gladioli and white dahlias had seemed like the right choice at the florist, but now he worried they would seem ingenious, or worse, a reminder of the red and white of the suit he wore trying to arrest Shouri’s brother countless times over the last year. “These are for you. I just wanted to know if there was anything I could do for you in this difficult time.”

The sadness and hesitation mixed on Shouri’s face and a silence settled between the two.

“It’s only been a week for me, you know.” Shouri finally said. “It feels like it’s been days since I saw Kairi’s smile, not a year or more… and to think of what he went through in that year… All the things I must have missed, all the things I’m going to continue to miss as long as he remains missing.”

“It was his heroism that brought you back,” Keiichiro supplied, unsure how much of the story had found its way to this ward. The newspapers were reporting things, of course, but they didn’t have all the details yet. Filling in the gaps was the least he could do, he told himself. “And what the GSPO knows is that everything Kairi did was for you. I know it’s a small comfort, but our science division is exploring all the possibilities we have to get your brother back.”

Shouri didn’t need to know that there appeared to be very little headway on that prospect, for now, or that preliminary studies were indicating that without Dogorino’s cooperation there was no guarantee of ever getting any of the Lupinrangers back.

“I appreciate that, officer.” He ran the heel of his hand along the ridge of his cheekbone, apparently trying to keep a tear from falling or forming. “I don’t know if you ever met him, but my brother can be difficult. He’s a brat sometimes, he’s a teenager, you know, but underneath it all I’ve always known how much he cares. I just wish I had been able to support him better before all this.”

Keiichiro had never known Kairi as a teenager, he’d already been twenty when they met, but that didn’t change that Shouri had missed that birthday, or that another birthday was just around the corner. Even so, the Kairi he was talking about wasn’t too far off from the Kairi that Keiichiro had known from the bistrot. 

“Everything he did was for me, huh?” Shouri said, suddenly, turning the book over in his hands. It was a worn copy of  _ Les Miserables. _ Keiichiro briefly wondered if it was his own, if he had ever shared it with his brother, if it was Shouri from whom Kairi had learned the endearing french that slipped into his vocabulary. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. “That kid… What was he thinking?”

“Later today, there’s going to be a press conference.” Keiichiro said. “There are some things that are bound to come out of that press conference that you should hear first.”

Shouri braced himself, but signaled for Keiichiro to continue.

“First, the estate of Arsene Lupin has been clear that they will not press charges for any theft, distribution or redistribution of the Lupin collection by your brother, Touma Yoimachi or the female minor.”

“Umika, you mean?” Shouri had a glint in his eye and a smile on his face. Keiichiro felt that smile like a fist to the stomach. The Yano brothers had the same cheeky, secretive grin. “I’m afraid those beans have already been spilled. Officer Takao is a pretty transparent guy.”

“That he is.” Keiichiro fought the grimace he knew his face was trying to form and made a note to call Noel the second he left. “Yes, Umika. So, civil charges are off the table, which is good, but there is a larger criminal investigation forthcoming about the participation of the Lupin estate in the organization of employment of vigilantes. As long as Kairi is missing, obviously, he can’t be tried for anything, but I want you to be prepared for the possibility of charges being brought.”

“I understand, thank you, officer.”

“Keiichiro,” he corrected, to Shouri’s apparent surprise. “You can just call me Keiichiro. Like I said, I’m not here as an officer. I just want to say that as a person, I’m on your side-- on your brother’s side.”

“You don’t think my brother is guilty? It seems like your organization has been pretty relentless in stopping him and his team.”

“I don’t make the laws, and it is my job to enforce them, but,” He paused. It would be so easy to admit to Shouri everything about the complicated nature of the relationship he had to the memory of Kairi, so easy to admit how his faith in justice was slipping, so easy to say everything he wanted to. Instead, he chose composure, professionalism. “I will say this: the law is a system that failed to account for people like your brother, Touma and Umika. When systems fail, they have to change, and as a cog in that machine, I have to change my perspective on things as well.”

Keiichiro rose from his seat and started walking towards the door. There was much he hadn’t gotten to, but there would be time. The mysteries of Kairi were ones he wanted to unravel slowly. He had decided to make him last for as long as he could with the uncertainty that he would get much more than what those who really knew him had to offer.

“Officer-- Keiichiro,” Shouri said, effectively stopping Keiichiro in his tracks just as he was about to pass through the threshold. “If I need to get a hold of you--”

“I’ve left my personal number with the flowers. Anything you need, day or night, I’m at your service.”

Shouri grabbed for the card in the bouquet, seeing a phone number and the short message Keiichiro had asked the florist to print:  _ I’m sorry for how things are. Let me know if you want to talk about how things were. -Keiichiro Asaka _

* * *

The press conference was pretty standard, as far as press conferences go. Commissioner Hilltop did most of the talking, while Jim dutifully flipped through the prepared slides, photos and documents. The Patorangers stood at attention backstage-- all but Noel, who hadn’t even bothered to answer one of Keiichiro’s eight phone calls made on the way back to the precinct. 

When the floor opened to questions from reporters, Keiichiro had to internally shake himself awake, having spaced out over the details he had already been briefed on.

(Keiichiro had been distracted thinking of Shouri’s book, wondering if he was not unlike Javert to Kairi’s Valjean, wondering if that’s how Kairi had seen him: an ever present, self-righteous and unforgiving threat to his freedom and happiness.)

“Officers, sources are reporting that the Patorangers frequented the front of the Lupinrangers operations frequently, some sources are suggesting that personal relationships of a possibly romantic nature existed between members of the GSPO and the people we now know as the Lupinranger. Is there truth to this?”

“Excuse me?” Keiichiro sputtered. A  _ romantic nature? _ Between him and Kairi? Where would such a rumor even start? Sure, they were friendly, and to an onlooker, maybe they even seemed close, but Keiichiro knew more than ever how far apart they had really been.

“Please direct questions to the GSPO press secretary or myself,” Commissioner Hilltop answered. “It is true that some of our officers have been patrons at the Bistro Jurer in the past, which we now know was connected to the Lupinrangers, but I can confirm that there was no knowledge of the connection at the time and that the bistro’s clientele was wide and varied.”

“What about the personal relationships, Commissioner?” Hilltop gave a sidelong glance which seemed to land on Sakuya and Keiichiro suddenly felt embarrassed about his albeit internal defensiveness. The romantic relationship accusation was about Sakuya and Umika, not himself and Kairi. 

Of course, he reminded himself. It was a ridiculous conclusion to jump to.

“I won’t comment about personal relationships, except to say that the identities of the Lupinrangers were revealed to the tactical team and GSPO in real time with the rest of the world.”

The questions that followed were thankfully milder.

“What will the role of the GSPO French branch be in the investigation? The Japanese police?”

Minimal. Less than minimal.

“Any comment on the role Lupin X will play on the receiving end of the justice system?”

Officer Noel Takao was authorized to work undercover. Any wrongdoing or missteps on his part will be handled internally.

“What about accusations that the Lupin estate were aware they were funding the Lupinranger’s vigilantism?”

No comment at this time, except that investigations will continue into the matter.

Amid the constant flickering of flashbulbs and the roar of unsated reporters, the team filed orderly off stage and back to their quarters at last. Keiichiro barely registered the sound of the commissioner chiding Sakuya about his dating indiscretions and of Tsukasa groaning about a sudden headache. Instead, he reached into his vibrating pocket and pulled out his cellphone.

The screen lit up with an unfamiliar number. He didn’t give out his number to many people, though, so there was really only one person it could be. He braced himself for impact and answered.

“Keiichiro, I think we should talk about this personal relationship matter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don’t know how to explain this really, because this isn't really an AU, but this work is heavily inspired by the musical dear evan hansen-- if you haven’t listened to the soundtrack i recommend it! (pls read triggers first, because it’s very heavy.) it tackles a lot of the questions i'm trying to explore here and i did listen to it on repeat for the entire writing of this chapter.
> 
> (shouri is somehow the combination of the entire murphy family? we’re talking all 5 stages of grief packed into the world’s best dad-brother! amazing!)


	3. but you're still on my lonely mind

Despite how busy the small cafe in the lobby of the hospital was, Keiichiro heard nothing but his own footsteps and heartbeat as he made his way back to the small table he and Shouri occupied, one of their drinks in each hand.

Meeting here had been Shouri’s idea, and Keiichiro had lost sleep the night before attempting to figure out what he could say to Kairi’s brother to explain why he hadn’t been forthcoming about the truth of his proximity to Kairi over the last year. Part of it was the shame of not having put it together sooner, but more of it was the shame of having failed to help him achieve his dream of reuniting with Shouri.

Shouri was in street clothes today, his discharge paperwork being processed upstairs, but Keiichiro realized that he had no idea where Kairi’s brother would be discharged to. Kairi had lived at the bistro for the last year. Had his wages there paid rent at his former home? He somehow doubted that, realizing belatedly how Lupin Red had seemed to not have a home to go to all those months ago. His heart fell at the thought.

He had been making these kinds of connections slowly and painfully since the moment Kairi had removed his mask and shown his face to the world. Over and over and over it would hit him, that Kairi was Lupin Red, despite the ever present knowledge of the fact. The overlap was still building out between the places in Keiichiro’s mind where he stored information about this nemesis and where he stored that about his… whatever it was what Kairi was to him.

He shook the thought as he set down their mugs and forced a smile to Shouri. If he was honest, friendly and diligent, Shouri couldn’t be upset with him… or at least, he hoped.

“So, you knew my brother?” Shouri asked, as Keiichiro sat, cutting right to the chase. His gaze leveled with Keiichiro’s in an intense way he finds surprisingly familiar. Later, when drawing his curtains before bed, he would realize it was a gaze he’d only before seen behind a lacy red mask and that realization would keep him awake another hour or two.

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” He answered, lowering his eyes to his mug. He’d ordered tea in an attempt to forget the coffee this man’s missing brother poured him countless times over the last year. Somehow, as had been the case with everything this week, the attempt to forget only reminded him all the more. “I thought I knew Kairi, until it was suddenly clear that I didn’t.”

Shouri only nodded silently in response, taking a sip of his coffee.

“I wonder, who was Kairi, really? Did anyone really know him?” As soon as he’d said it out loud he realized the mistake he made. One look at Shouri’s face told him he had crossed a line.

“Let’s begin by saying that my brother is not past-tense, officer.” Any trace of friendliness had drained from Shouri’s face and it became clear that the Yano brothers had both the same smile and the same frown. “People do know him, in the present-tense, and just because you weren’t able to see him in entirety doesn’t mean that no one has ever done that. It only means that you couldn’t.”

Keiichiro was speechless because this was true. He didn’t know Kairi because Kairi hadn’t wanted him to know. 

“Shouri! There you are!” A voice from behind him broke the silence and Keiichiro’s head turned over his shoulder to see a smiling teenage girl in pigtails rushing towards their table. He immediately recognized her as Shiho Ichinose, Umika’s childhood friend, and when their eyes met, she froze, smile fading completely, clearly recognizing him as well.

“Shiho, now isn’t really a great time,” Shouri stated what was clear to all three of them, but Keiichiro wasn’t about to let him brush this away completely.

“You two know each other?” Keiichiro asked, gaze following between them.

Shiho just barely nodded, but Shouri answered for both of them. “Officer Takao introduced us. I was going to give Shiho my contact information before my discharge, and I will, but I should finish my conversation with the officer, first.”

“Right,” Shiho gave what was clearly a fake smile, before turning to Shouri. “I’ll wait for you upstairs.” 

She was gone quicker than she’d appeared.

“Where were we?” Shouri asked, but there was no way he had forgotten that they were mid-awkward silence. Keiichiro took this as a gracious allowance for a second chance.

“I thought that I knew your brother well, this past year,” Keiichiro began, careful not to make the same mistake twice. “I thought we were close even, but I didn’t know that he was a phantom thief, and it seems there was much else that I didn’t know. I’m sorry I didn’t say so when we met yesterday, but I personally care a lot about his safe return. There’s a thousand ways I failed him and you, but I’ll work hard to make it right with both of you.”

“Tell me if I’m wrong,” Shouri said, after a beat. His expression was even, the anger had faded. “But it seems like you’re the kind of person my brother would be careful to only show his good sides to, so it must have been a shock to find out how angry he can be.”

“I suppose it was,” Keiichiro acknowledged, finally taking a sip of his now cooled tea. “But now that I’m thinking about it, even as Kairi Yano, I still sometimes saw him upset or angry.”

Shouri sighed and his expression became even further unreadable, somewhere between skeptical and something more defensive-- protective, perhaps? “I don’t know how much this will help you find the closure you’re so clearly seeking, but maybe one day your can come to our house. I’ll show you who my brother is, instead attempting to just tell you what is impossible to capture in words.”

Shouri pushed out his chair and rose, excusing himself with a stiff bow.

As soon as he’d left, Keiichiro let out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. His reprieve didn’t last long however as a sudden flash in the corner of his field of vision shocked him into alert. Out of reflex he raised his hand and caught a small paper, about the size of a playing card.

Noel.

* * *

“Noel, I know you’re here,” Keiichiro called into the empty cafe, but got no response. He turned over the card in his hand once more. It was the right time, the right place, so where was Noel?

The cafe was still cleared out, but no longer an active crime scene. The crime scene analysts had come to find quickly that there was nothing here to analyze. The Lupin estate clearly worked quickly and thoroughly. There was no trace of anything from the Bistro Jurer here, let alone its staff.

A sudden thump from above and the unmistakable sound of one of the Lupinranger’s grapnels alerted Keiichiro to the answer to his earlier question and he ran to the back of the storefront in search of stairs, which he found and promptly flew up them in what felt like a single bound. He had never been in the upstairs of the bistro, but it was unsurprisingly bare like the floor below. A door on the left was open and he followed his intuition beyond the threshold.

Noel was standing in the moonlight. He was wearing an overcoat made of a shiny gold material, a clumsy excuse of a disguise from someone who always preferred to stand out rather than blend in.

“Keiichiro, I was hoping you’d come!” He smiled so nonchalantly that Keiichiro almost forgot how mad he should be that this is how they were meeting.

“Where have you been?”

Noel tsked, leaning back on the windowsill behind him. “No pleasantries tonight? Keiichiro, aren’t we friends?”

“I don’t know about friends, but I thought at least we understood one another, Noel.” Suddenly, Keiichiro realized how stiff, how defensive his body had become, and made a conscious effort to unfurl his fists and unset his jaw. Noel, as annoying as he could be, was not his enemy.

Still, he had questions to answer.

“_ Mais, mon cher ami, _” Noel smiled. Keiichiro had to fight himself from scoffing at the term of endearment. “We do understand each other, which is why I wanted to tell you personally that I’ll be taking a leave of absence from the GSPO.”

“You’re doing what? Why?” If Noel was taking a leave of absence, why had he gone to the trouble of taking statements from Shouri and the others? Why had he insisted French HQ take over the investigations?

“You know,” Noel pushed himself off from the windowsill and began to pace the room towards him. “There is a reason that I made the X-nizer versatile.”

“Yeah, I know, so you could play both sides of the game.”

Noel paused in his pace at the accusation, but his smile didn’t falter 

“_ Non _, Keiichiro. It wasn’t about playing sides. It was about recognizing the powers of authority and autonomy. As a Patoranger, there is authority, but it comes at the cost of autonomy and the reverse is true of being a Lupinranger.”

From under his coat, Noel pulled out an object, but it was hard to discern what it was in the dark. He held it close to his chest like it was precious.

“Right now,” Noel continued, “Being a Lupinranger can help me achieve that which we both desire, you and I. You are a Patoranger, which means that you have a certain set of responsibilities that it’s important you uphold to maintain that authority you have. I hope you understand. _ Mais bien sûr _, before I leave, I’d like to impart a gift with you.”

Keiichiro watched as Noel closed the distance between them just enough to press the object he had been cradling against Keiichiro’s own chest. Reluctantly, he accepted it by reaching up to hold it himself.

The object Noel handed him looked like a whip, but he knew a collection piece when he saw one and from the looks of it this was a strong piece. It's handle was black with a white grip, adorned with a red jewel at the hilt. The end gave way to a thin red tail, which Noel had wrapped neatly before handing it over.

"What does it do?"

"Her name is _ La Ficelle Rouge Dans Nos Mains _," Noel smiled, cryptically.

"Okay, what does _ she _do?" Keiichiro tried not to let the annoyance he often felt when dealing with Noel tint his voice, and luckily he'd had about eight months of practice at that particular skill.

"Ah, _ mon cher ami _, that would take all the fun out of the matter, wouldn't it?"

"I'm going to turn this over to GSPO custody, you know," Keiichiro sighed. "You must know that, because you just gave me such a lecture on my responsibility as an officer."

"_ Mais pensez-y, _" He smiled once more. "I think if you take one night to learn her secrets, you'll understand why I want you to watch her for me, just for a time. Besides, even if you do take her to the GSPO, I still have my ways to get her back."

This was true, no doubt. Keiichiro could only imagine the kind of reach Noel had within the GSPO, and combined with the reach of the Lupin estate beyond it? Noel could have _ La Ficelle Rouge _back whenever he wanted.

“Fine, I’ll accept it,” Keiichiro said, but it felt like a surrender. He could hold onto this for one night and decide in the morning what to do about it. “But in exchange I want answers to my questions.”

“How about three? Three answers seems like a fair trade, doesn’t it?” It was clear that this was this wasn’t up for negotiation, so Keiichiro began.

“Alright, first, why did you take the statements of Shouri Yano, Shiho Ichinose and Aya Ohira before the Japanese GSPO branch could?”

“Hm, closure?” Chin resting on his hand, Noel seemed to be guessing at the answer himself. “I suppose I wanted to meet them knowing I’d be taking this leave. I wanted to make it clear to them the relationship I had with their loved ones and express my commitment to getting them back.”

Despite the fact that Keiichiro himself had similar intentions when he met with Shouri earlier that day, and the day before even, somehow, he had a feeling that Noel’s conversations had gone more smoothly than his own. He could accept this answer, even over the doubt that nagged at the back of his mind that maybe there was more to it.

“How long are you going to be away?”

“As long as I need to be.” The answer was simple, yet vague, and it made Keiichiro unspeakably annoyed for some reason. Noel wasn’t elaborating, however, and knowing he only had one question left, he decided not to push it.

He mustered the courage to ask his final question, knowing that he was terrified of what the answer could be. “What do you know about Kairi that I don’t?”

Noel’s smirk in the moonlight was telling. Before his words even formed, there seemed to be much information that fell into that category.

“For one,” Noel began pacing back toward the open window. “This was his bedroom. I know because he let me sleep in his bed once.”

The blush hit Keiichiro’s face before he could fight it and it seemed impossible to will away. He was sure that there was an innocent explanation for the anecdote, but he didn’t have time to dig into that right now.

“That wasn’t the sort of thing I was asking and you know it.”

“It seems to me, Keiichiro, that there is very little that anyone could know about Kairi that you don’t.”

Before he could protest, Noel had his grapnel in hand and with a small brush of his finger on it’s side, he went flying out the open window. Keiichiro was left alone in the emptiness of what he now knew was Kairi’s bedroom, with more questions than answers and a collection piece in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> noel be like “it is i, the flashiest, frenchiest fry, here to tease my favorite target keiichiro” lmao #LetNoelBeShadyAndSpeakFrench2k19
> 
> "la ficelle rouge dans nos mains" is french for “the red string in our hands” and is meant to be a recolored version of maria’s whip from jetman (1. bc string and 2. bc did we ever get a jetman themed collection piece? i don’t think so and i won’t stand for bird angst erasure). hmmmm what could it dooooo? ;)


	4. you're still so distant, i can't bring you back

Noel had promised that one night would be enough to learn the secrets of the collection piece he had entrusted to Keiichiro. This, like many things Noel had told him, appeared to Keiichiro to be easier said than done.

  
Back in his small, impersonal but highly efficient dorm room, Keiichiro spent hours turning _La __Ficelle Rouge_ over in his hand, snapping the whip’s tail this way and that in what would appear to onlooker to be an elaborate rhythmic gymnastics performance with questionable technique at best. After the third time he accidentally hit himself in the face, Keiichiro decided to call it a night.

  
Wrapping the tail neatly and placing it on his desk, he sighed, somewhat defeated. Part of him thought once more about taking the collection piece into GSPO custody in the morning. Maybe the science department would have some tests to run or something that could tell him more about what this piece did, give him some idea about why Noel would give it to him personally like this.

  
But then again, maybe this was one of those times that he should trust Noel. Maybe the collection piece hadn’t warmed up to him in one night the way it would have for the heir to the Lupin estate.

  
It would have shown Kairi its secrets by now, he mused.

Kairi.

Keiichiro had drew the curtains, thinking about Kairi, his brother and the stupid toy whip now in his possession. Each of them held secrets just beyond his grasp and it drove him crazy thinking about what they were. Hours later, as sleep finally found him, his last thought before drifting was that he wanted nothing more than for each of them to open up to him, just a little bit.

* * *

  
In the gauzy haze of Keiichiro’s dream, he found himself in a clearing in the middle of a sparse forest. The night was clear, but dark, and in the moonlight, he took stock of his surroundings. There was a tree in the center of a clearing, framed with flowers and a glowing technicolor aura radiating from it. It was as though the oxygen it produced was itself colorful. A familiar voice rang from the other side of the tree, but he couldn’t make out where he knew it from.

  
Cautiously, he walked across the field and hid behind the tree’s trunk closer to the voice (which was now clearly joined by at least one other) and listened.

  
“I’m so bored,” the first voice said. It was female, sweet and high, but clearly frustrated.

  
“That’s not my problem,” came a second voice, much lower than the first, but just as familiar.

“Let’s play a game!”

  
“Go to sleep, Umika.”

  
Umika? Keiichiro’s eyes opened wide in shock and he ran out from behind the tree. There he saw a sight which brought him to tears: Umika, Touma and Kairi _(Kairi!)_ laid out in the grass, together and very much alive. They didn’t even turn to look at him, caught up in star gazing together.

  
Keiichiro tried to say something, anything, but all his unhelpful brain would supply was a mantra of _Kairi, Kairi, Kairi_, over and over. He was frozen in place, tears streaming down his face silently as Kairi finally sat up. Their eyes locked, and Kairi’s face became unreadable.

  
Unreadable wasn’t right. Kairi’s face was actually too readable for Keiichiro, but the messages were too many, cycling too quickly, and he couldn’t quite pin what all Kairi’s many expressions and emotions really meant. He saw joy mixed with fear, relief mixed with disdain, alert mixed with with calm, but above it all, disbelief.

  
The only thing he was entirely sure of was that Kairi saw him.

  
“K-chan?” Kairi’s voice was so clear. The part of Keiichiro that was just barely aware that this was a dream couldn’t account for how clear his voice was. Nothing and everything felt real in this place, all at once.

  
Umika and Touma both turned to him as well, but it was clear that they were only following Kairi’s line of sight. They couldn’t see him, not like Kairi could, of that he was certain.

  
Keiichiro tried again to speak, but all he could get out was a weak, wet sob of Kairi’s name.

  
Umika and Touma showed no signs they had heard it. Kairi’s lips pressed together in concentration, and though it was hard to see in the moonlight, it looked like a tear was welling in his eye.

  
“What are you staring at, Kairi?” Umika asked, now crouching at Kairi’s side and prodding his cheek with concern. Kairi batted her hand away, but never broke his eye contact with Keiichiro.

  
“Don’t you see, him? K-chan, he’s--” As soon as Kairi’s eyes left his, turning to Umika to explain, Keiichiro felt himself fading.

* * *

Keiichiro sat up like a bolt from bed, his alarm clock blaring in the background, but all he was really aware of was the wetness on his cheeks and the dull ache of his left hand.

By the time he’d finally convinced himself that it was just a very realistic dream, he was already at work. Sakuya’s morning greetings fell on his deaf ears and Tsukasa’s worried looks were left unreturned as his brain replayed the words of his dream on repeat.

  
_“Don’t you see him? K-chan, he’s--”_  
_“Don’t you see him?”_  
_“K-chan?”_  
_“Don’t you see him?”_

  
“--pai? Sempai!” Sakuya’s voice finally cut through to him.

  
“What?” He cringed at the irritability he heard in his own voice.

  
“What happened to your hand?” Sakuya pointed to the hand Keiichiro had already forgot was aching. When he looked down at it, he saw that it was red and raw. The skin wasn’t broken, but it looked like it had been burned or bound tightly enough to cut off circulation. He would have bruises in a few days undoubtedly. It almost looked like… ropeburn.

  
Tsukasa didn’t wait for his explanation before throwing open a drawer on her desk and pulling out a first aid kit to treat his wound.

  
“I don’t know how this happened,” Keiichiro admitted, but internally he had a theory. “It was fine when I went to bed.”

  
Tsukasa and Sakuya exchanged worried looks, and Keiichiro immediately hated it.

  
This was one thing he didn’t always like about being on a three person team. They all had their dynamics, of course, two of them often teaming up on the third. More often than not, that was Keiichiro and Tsukasa keeping Sakuya in line, or sometimes even Keiichiro and Sakuya taking a rare moment to tease Tsukasa for some seemingly out of character thing she’d done.

  
Sakuya and Tsukasa, however, only ever teamed up on him to tell him to calm down or to worry over him, and they were especially effective worriers.

  
“Keiichiro,” Tsukasa, said slowly, tucking the end of the bandage around his hand one last time. “Have you thought about seeing someone, professionally?”

  
“Like therapy?” Keiichiro asked, not sure where this was going.

“There’s no shame in it!” Sakuya supplied with an unnecessarily bright smile. “I’ve been seeing the on site psychologist for months, since way before, well you know... You could even get an appointment during the workday and--”

“I’ll look into it.” He said curtly, hoping they’d get the message that he didn’t want to talk about it. When his teammates returned to their desks without a further word, he assumed they had.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand their concern, or that he didn’t appreciate it, but right now, he wanted to focus on decoding his dream and trying to connect what it could possibly have to do with the rope burn on his hand.

_La Ficelle Rouge dans Nos Mains_ had her secrets surely, but he didn’t yet understand what they were, and a search of the GSPO database had nothing to offer him. Hours of quiet research when he should have been finishing up paperwork led him nowhere.

  
He should have known, he supposed, that it wouldn’t be that easy. Nothing ever was.

  
With that thought, as if on cue, suddenly an alarm was going off. A gangler had appeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note:  
1\. therapy is both great and sucks (but it's supposed to, if changing your life isn’t uncomfortable you’re not making changes)  
2\. sorry for lack of updates, they’re still coming, i have plans~


	5. there's no one i can run to

Being the last person to leave the GSPO headquarters was the kind of thing Keiichiro had gotten used to over the last two years. What he had never gotten used to, however, was the way fighting Ganglers always left his mind just as sore as his body.

It was naive to have thought that bringing down Dogranio would mean having seen the last of the Ganglers, Keiichiro supposed, but that didn't mean it was any less frustrating to have them back.

When the first lingering Gangler appeared two weeks ago, the day after the dream that was still haunting Keiichiro, he had immediately fallen back into his post-Gangler arrest routine: clean up his workspace, change his clothes, grab a decaf can of coffee for the walk back to the dorm and keep walking until the long day felt like it was actually behind him. The walks had been somewhat shorter, now that he didn’t have to grumble and ponder about the Lupinrangers, but he tried not to think about that too much. He focused instead on trying to figure out what these Gangler rejects thought they were going to accomplish with the entire GSPO putting all their efforts into guarding the incarcerated Dogranio. 

It was apparent that as a group the Ganglers were leaderless, floundering and down to their least competent members. Most of them didn't even have collection pieces, thankfully. With Gouche defeated, things weren't _ literally _escalating, at least, and Keiichiro was grateful to not have sat behind the controls of a mecha for almost a month.

These were the thoughts that consumed him as his walk led him to an empty park bench. He inhaled the night air, trying to think about anything but work. Slumping into the bench, he cracked open his second can of decaf coffee. It wasn't his usual park. He hadn't even been to that park since... Well, it had been over a month now. Spring was already starting to give way to summer. 

The barrage of Gangler attacks in the last two weeks had left Keiichiro little time to think about that all too real dream. All he had been able to work out was that somehow, _ La Ficelle Rouge _ was involved. He had a personal theory that the collection piece somehow was playing mind games with him, giving him a comforting image of where Kairi had landed, but it was far too good to be true. He didn’t want to think about how lonely and empty that real void must have been.

He hadn’t had another dream like that since, although internally, Keiichiro could admit to desperately, desperately wanting to. Kairi was often still in his dreams, but it never felt so real as that one. Keiichiro was sure it was the clarity of his voice that was the difference. Once, he had read that the first thing you forget about a person, before their warmth, their habits, or their face is their voice. If he tried, he could still recall the smooth tenor of Kairi’s teasing lilt, but his subconscious never allowed it in his dreams.

Except that once.

His theory about _ La Ficelle Rouge _, however, was just that: a theory. He had tried to contact Noel to seek clarification, but he was unreachable. His phone number had changed, and his work emails bounced. Rumors were starting to go around about what he was up to, not just at the GSPO, but around town as people noticed that Patren X wasn’t responding to the Ganglers with the rest of the Patorangers.

Some said the leave of absence was forced as investigations into his activities as a Lupinranger continued. Others swore he had returned to Paris to write a book about the events of the last year. Still, there were those who claimed that a house owned by the Lupin estate on the west end of the city had a constant rotation of people entering and exiting at all hours of the night, and conspiracies about the Lupinrangers being back were floating around, too.

Keiichiro didn't buy any of the theories. Noel, he was sure, was grieving and planning and waiting for the right moment to surprise them all with a way to get Kairi and the others back for real. Or at least, he hoped.

Just as he had decided he ought to head back to his dorm, noting that he had left work hours ago, his phone started vibrating in his pocket. Looking at the lit up screen he was mildly surprised by the name that he read.

Keiichiro could count on one hand the number of times that Sakuya had called his personal phone. He and Sakuya were with each other often enough that the need just had never been there, he supposed, and part of it too was that there was a level of respect for each other's personal time that defined their relationship as coworkers. If this were about work, the call would be from the commissioner or Jim, _ maybe _ Tsukasa, so it must have been about something else. Seeing the name on the screen, he didn't hesitate to swipe to answer the call.

"Sakuya?"

"Keiichiro-sempai," With two words, Keiichiro grasped the nature of the call. He had heard this tone enough in his days as a beat cop to immediately know Sakuya was both very drunk and on the verge of tears. "C-can you p-pick me up? Please?"

"Where are you? I'll be right there."

Although he had asked the question, he quickly realized he wasn't prepared for the answer.

"I'm at Bistro Jurer."

* * *

Keiichiro hadn't really been keeping tabs on the abandoned restaurant, everything worth caring about in regards to it was gone, after all. Even so, he wasn't surprised to find that no new businesses had moved in to the space. There was a small sign in the window which said "property for rent," but being shrouded in controversy and being tied to the Ganglers, it made sense that it would go unoccupied.

On the darkened stoop of the bistro, Sakuya was cradling his head in his hands, sniffling and shaking, and clearly Keiichiro's assumption about his state had been right.

"Sakuya, what are you doing here?"

At his voice, Sakuya's head shot up. He clumsily got to his feet before throwing himself around Keiichiro's frame in an awkward embrace. They stayed like that for a few moments, Sakuya clutching at Keiichiro like he was the only thing keeping him on the ground, sobbing loudly, while Keiichiro just stood there, trying to figure out what to do or say.

Nothing about the way that Sakuya had been at work that day had hinted that this is what he was feeling like inside. Since the press conference, the younger had been wearing a brave face, never bringing up the missing trio and going silent any time they were mentioned, or even alluded to. How much of that silence was for Sakuya himself and how much was to quell the rumors about himself and Umika, Keiichiro hadn’t considered.

Finally, Sakuya's sobs slowed down enough that he was able to choke out a few words. "Sempai, I... loved her."

Keiichiro didn't know what to do, so he settled for pulling away and putting a comforting hand on Sakuya's shoulder.

"Let's have a talk," he offered. The two sat down on the stoop. Keiichiro pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Sakuya who took it without hesitation. He unceremoniously began wiping his face of tears and snot.

"I really, really loved her," Sakuya repeated, having collected himself somewhat. He didn't have to say who he was talking about, where they were said it all.

"I'm sure that you think you feel that way," Keiichiro began cautiously. "But you didn't even know the real Umika. You know that, don't you?"

"I did, too," His weak protest made him sound like a petulant child, and the still streaming tears certainly didn't help. "I miss her so much, sempai!"

"We all miss them," Keiichiro admitted.

"Not like I do."

Keiichiro knew he shouldn't show his anger. Sakuya wasn't himself right now, he was fragile and vulnerable and hurting enough already. It wasn’t like Sakuya knew how much any of this was affecting him personally. Keiichiro too had avoided talking about anything, falling in easily with Tsukasa’s “everything’s fine” routine. Keiichiro knew all this, knew he should remain calm, but he heard his own outburst as though listening to someone else entirely.

"You're not the only one who lost someone they love!"

The words hung between them. Keiichiro begged himself not to think too hard about what he had meant by those words. Caring about Kairi was easy to admit, but _ love _… that word implied several things Keiichiro didn’t yet want to own.

He cleared his throat and tried again, backpedaling as best he could.

“We all cared about--”

"Are you saying that you loved Kairi?"

“That’s not what I--”

“You did!” Sakuya began to sob once more. Leave it to Sakuya to take their conversation in the exact direction Keiichiro had been hoping to avoid.

“God, it was so obvious!” Sakuya cried, taking one of Keiichiro’s hands in his and looking at him with an unsettling amount of pity. “And I was so caught up in myself I didn’t even think of your feelings! I’m such a bad friend! I don’t deserve to be crying like this!”

_ And yet _, Keiichiro thought, somewhat irritated. He tried to pull his hand away from Sakuya, but found himself in a death grip.

“You’re drunk, Sakuya. Get a hold of yourself.” He sighed. “Let me walk you home.”

“I don’t want to go home,” he sniffed. “I want to wait here for Umika. Will you wait with me?”

It was the tired, lonely part of Keiichiro’s mind that told him that he could wait here for Kairi forever. However, it was the logical, responsible part that spoke up.

“Weren’t you the one who worried about the world Umika would come back to?” He put a comforting arm around Sakuya’s shoulder, who immediately fell into his sempai’s arms. Letting Sakuya dampen his lapel with tears, Keiichiro told himself to be the strong one for Sakuya’s sake. “Let’s just put our energy into fighting the Ganglers for now.”

"I can’t go home,” Sakuya answered. “I can’t be alone right now, sempai.”

“You can crash at my place,” Keiichiro offered, with a sigh. He was getting soft on Sakuya after all this time. “Just this once, though.”

Sakuya buried his face into Keiichiro’s jacket once more. He muttered something but it was muffled against the fabric. Keiichiro let out a small questioning hum, prompting Sakuya to pull away, and repeat.

“It really was obvious you loved him.”

Keiichiro tsked and reminded himself that what Sakuya thought didn’t really matter in this case. “Do you want a place to sleep or not?”

“Sorry.”

Sakuya followed him back through the night to the dorm, leaving the bistro and the streetlights in the distance as they walked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note:  
me: i gotta shift into kchan mode  
me: *fires up sad piano jazz playlist on spotify*  
me: ok im there
> 
> kchan’s brand is pining, obliviousness and willful denial. don’t fight me on this.  
realistically, i think i'm going to be able to get a chapter up each week, because writing is harder than i remember it being…


	6. how does it start and when does it end?

Keiichiro knew his wish for another special dream had come true from the moment he saw the tree and the thick, colorful air around it. It was weird, he supposed, that his mind would conjure such a specifically unfamiliar place for him to return to when there were plenty of places he went every day that his subconscious could attach to more readily. Then again, he was no expert on the subconscious.

This time, with nothing but the hope things would be as he’d left them, he ran towards that clearing where Kairi had been and prayed he would be once more. 

He had almost reached the clearing when he felt a hand slap over his mouth and a body pulling him backward. With every ounce of fight that he could muster he struggled, attempting to make noise and thwart his attacker, but the body holding his back was fast and surprisingly strong.

“Would you cut it out?!” The arms around him let go and Keiichiro turned over his shoulder to find Kairi shaking out his wrist. That wry smile that was Kairi’s trademark greeted him, and this time, Keiichiro could read it perfectly. Kairi was happy. Happy to see him.

Keiichiro’s heart swelled and he was overcome with the urge to cry with the happiness that was overwhelming every level of his existence. It was the relief that Kairi didn’t hate or resent him that kept him from completely losing himself to the urge.

(That nagging part of his brain piped up, as always, to remind him that this was a dreamed-up version of Kairi and the real one might feel very differently.)

Kairi’s smile had settled into a subtle grin, and he reached out a hand to place it tenderly on the side of Keiichiro’s face.

“You came back,” Kairi’s other hand was now on his shoulder. “Are you the real thing? You feel like the real K-chan…”

“I’m real,” Keiichiro breathed, covering each of Kairi’s hands with one of his own. Kairi felt real, too. He gazed intently at Kairi’s face, trying desperately to commit each freckle to memory in case he never got another dream like this again. All the freckles he expected to be there were, and a few more that he wondered if his sleeping brain had made up for fun. “You’re not, though... This is just a dream, I think.”

“Do you dream of me often?” Kairi chuckled, and Keiichiro thought a blush might be joining the freckles on Kairi’s cheeks. It could be a trick of the light, though. It was pretty dark here after all.

“Not as often as I want to.”

  
“Because you like me?” Kairi sing-songed. Clearly, he was trying to play into the charming if somewhat annoying version of himself that Keiichiro knew from the bistro, as he poked a finger at Keiichiro’s cheek in a teasing way. It would have made him unspeakably angry if it was anyone else. But it wasn’t anyone else. It was Kairi. So he just felt fond.

“I guess it doesn’t matter because it’s just a dream, right? I’ll admit it.” He bucked up his courage as best he could. Keiichiro tried to put a little distance between them, but Kairi wouldn’t have it, clinging more tightly to his frame. “I’m worried… that I might have feelings for you. That I might love you.”

Kairi’s face fell, and Keiichiro immediately worried that it was the wrong thing to say. After a beat of silence, he spoke quietly but maintained their eye contact with that unnerving intensity he always had. “You’re  _ worried _ about that? Would it be such a bad thing to love me?”

Oh.  _ Oh. _

This was the permission he needed. The permission to feel what he was already feeling. Even if it was a dream, he needed something, to tell him it was okay. And this specter of Kairi had given it to him.

“Would you mind if I loved you?”

“God, I almost forgot how dense you can be,” Kairi answered, but Keiichiro still wanted to hear him say that it was okay. He tried to be grateful for what he got. 

“I was worried that you hated me, honestly,” Kairi went on. “I’ve acted nothing but selfishly since we met. And even when you were here last time—”

“I was overwhelmed,” Keiichiro cut in. “I thought I’d never see you again. I was worried that  _ you  _ hated  _ me _ .”

“So, you do remember the last time!”

“Wait,  _ you  _ remember the last time?”

Kairi nodded gravely, pulling Keiichiro by the hand and guided their bodies around the side of the tree. He pointed silently to where Touma and Umika were sleeping. Umika was letting out small snores, Touma had his hat tipped over his face.

“They couldn’t see you. They think I’m losing it in here.” Kairi turned his head to look back at Keiichiro, but once their eyes met again, Keiichiro felt himself fading. Kairi’s face turned to panic, and his grasp at their connected hands tightened. “Don’t leave me, again!”

“I don’t want to, but—”

“K-chan, promise you’ll come back!”

“I promi—”

* * *

Keiichiro woke up like a shot, breathing heavily, drenched in a cold sweat. His hand hurt again. That couldn’t be a coincidence, but he couldn’t dwell on that after realizing the concerning proximity of another body on his futon. Out of pure instinct, he threw himself back and tried to kick the body away.

A distinctly Sakuya groan escaped the body and that’s when he remembered how this body got into his futon. Sakuya. The bistro. The crying. He sighed in relief.

The night before, Sakuya had made a fuss about not wanting to be a bother. (The irony had been completely lost on him, but nevertheless.) Then, he’d cried and wailed about the way Umika’s hair used to look in the sunlight and how no one could make a cup of tea like she could, all the while, Keiichiro cleaning up his tiny dorm and humming to signal he was still listening. Luckily in his state, Sakuya had barely noticed when Keiichiro swept  _ La Ficelle Rouge _ into an open drawer out of sight.

Keiichiro had finally fallen asleep to the sounds of Sakuya’s muffled sniffling after the third hour of his rant. There had just been no changing the topic last night, but he supposed he was glad to be the person Sakuya trusted with this. Although, he also hoped this wouldn’t become a habit.

His thoughts wandered back to the dream, again amazed at how real it all had felt. Kairi’s freckles, the warmth of his hand, the clarity of his voice.

_ Would it be such a bad thing to love me? _

That was going to haunt Keiichiro for a while, he could tell.

The sound of his buzzing cell phone pulled him back to earth. Sakuya groaned once more, coming to wake, as the sound of Keiichiro’s phone vibrating echoed through the room again.

“Good morning, sempai,” Sakuya sat up, clearly just half asleep and maybe just a touch hungover. “Did you know you sleep talk?”

Keiichiro hadn’t expected such a sudden morning critique from someone whom he’d generously offered hospitality to, so he chose to ignore it. He reached for his phone and unplugged it from its charger, catching sight of the red rawness of the flesh on his left hand belatedly. The sight was enough to cause him to drop the phone like it was on fire. He could almost make out a pattern, which looked like a rope-like braid of some sort. 

His eyes immediately shot to the drawer where he was hiding  _ La Ficelle Rouge.  _ It was slightly ajar. He quickly thanked the heavens that Sakuya was either too tired or too hungover (or both) to have noticed his hand yet and did his best to hide it from sight by resting it under the blanket.

He slowly grabbed for his phone with his right hand, trying to appear natural and hoping for an excuse to send Sakuya home.

> **Shouri**: Found something of Kairi’s you might want to have.
> 
> **Shouri**: Come to our place to pick it up? Whenever is fine. Just let me know.
> 
> **Shouri**: [Location attached].

Well, he’d hoped for a reason to send Sakuya off. He had one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello, everyone! thank you so incredibly much for the continued interest in this fic~ i promise that it’s not going anywhere!
> 
> last week was week of toku ladies on tumblr, and my manic ass was like “yes, i can do seven vidlets and write a chapter of this fanfic and host my friends for the weekend and see john cameron mitchell perform and work 40 hours and everything will be fine.” surprising no one, i was a little burnt out and like half of those things actually got done. BUT! the show must go on, and if i do say so myself…… it’s about to get real good :)


	7. i don't even know one thing about you

Keiichiro’s gaze was lingering on the unassuming apartment building he’d been led to by Shouri’s map. Specifically, he was looking at the handwritten insert above the doorbell, and the two cramped characters indicating this was the Yano residence. He checked for what must have been the twentieth time to be sure the address was right, anyway. It still was.

The building was two stories of beige-painted brick, with a small friendly looking garden in front. It was impossible to tell from the outside whether this was the place Kairi and Shouri had lived together before the latter’s disappearance, or if the residence was one Shouri had come to on his own in the month or two since the former’s. He had called it “our” place in his message, but whether that word was historical or hopeful, Keiichiro wouldn’t dare guess aloud.

He finally decided that his finger had hovered over the doorbell button for long enough. Bucking up his courage, he pressed it, knuckle briefly going white at the pressure. There was a scuffle from behind the door, which opened on a less-than-composed looking Shouri. 

“You didn’t waste any time, officer.” Shouri said, almost breathlessly. He had a red, flour-smattered apron tied over what appeared to be his pajamas. It was clear that despite the fact he had been the one to invite Keiichiro over, he wasn’t ready for the officer’s arrival.

He supposed he had kind of rushed getting here, eager to see whatever it was that Shouri was offering him. Keiichiro had pushed Sakuya on his way, careful not to mention where it was he had to hurry off to on a Saturday morning, which proved to be an easier task than he had anticipated. It turned out that a tired, hungry and hungover Sakuya was by far the easiest to persuade. (And thankfully also, the least observant. He hadn’t seemed to notice the fresh wound on Keiichiro’s left hand.) He had been eager, he realized, to have another piece of Kairi. 

“Is it a bad time after all?” Keiichiro asked, instinctively taking a step back.

“No, please, come in!” Shouri led him into the kitchen where a warm, bready smell was wafting from the oven. The kitchen was cramped but homey. A pair of bar stools were shoved under a high wood table, natural light filtered from the window above the sink. Dishes were drying on a rack, and tattered photographs mixed with sticky notes on the refrigerator door.

“I’m just trying my hand at a recipe a friend gave me,” Shouri explained, gesturing at the ingredients and utensils lined up on the counter space. He gestured to Keiichiro to stay as he walked further into the apartment. “Sit, make yourself at home. I’ll go get it.”

Keiichiro had no idea what “it” was. Whatever mysterious possession of Kairi’s that Shouri wanted to bestow upon him had remained a mystery even in their quick exchanges that morning. He turned his attention instead to the refrigerator gallery.

There were pictures of Kairi and Shouri from what seemed to be childhood, and a few with a couple he assumed were their parents. Kairi, it seemed, had gotten his curls from his mother and his nose from his father. Other pictures seemed more recent, relatively speaking. One had a smiling teenage Kairi looking at a graduation robe-clad Shouri with admiration. Another showed Kairi in a basketball uniform, clearly unamused by the fact he was having his picture taken. Keiichiro himself had been on the receiving end of that look more than once and was impressed that Shouri (he assumed) had still been brave enough to snap the picture.

He pulled this particular photo from its place on the refrigerator and thought about all he still didn’t know about this young man he was constantly thinking of. In these pictures were Kairi throughout time, and Keiichiro didn’t know all of these expressions. The smiles in the other pictures could have been the performance of happiness, he supposed, but the annoyance in this one at least seemed to be a real emotion felt by the real Kairi. The fondness in his heart swelled for a moment.

The realization that Keiichiro had woken up with that morning had been strong and clear. That dream was enough to eradicate any doubt lingering in his mind. He loved Kairi. He loved him, and he was allowed to love him. But what did that mean in a world where there was a real possibility Keiichiro would never see Kairi again?

There was always the possibility that he was reading too much into these dreams.

“He can be kind of stubborn sometimes, but I’m sure you of all people know that, Keiichiro.” Shouri’s voice startled Keiichiro as he fumbled to put the picture back.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean--” Keiichiro felt like a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar. Why hadn’t he just sat down like Shouri asked? Why couldn’t he just be near a photo of Kairi without staring at it like an obsessed fan?

“It’s fine, you’re curious, I understand,” Shouri smiled with tight lips. Kairi had given him the same smile months ago, but he refused to linger on that. “Besides, didn’t I say the last time we met that I’d show you who my brother is if you came here? Let’s sit.”

Keiichiro sat on one of the bar stools and faced Shouri, who placed a stack of notebooks and papers between them.

“These,” Shouri held up a spiral notebook, before placing it in Keiichiro’s hands. “These are his math notes.”

Keiichiro flipped through the pages, and it was clear by the eraser marks and scratched out equations that Kairi was not great at math. He had a few doodles of what looked to be basketball plays in the back. Keiichiro wondered why he never knew that Kairi played, or even liked the game come to think of it.

“Maybe you already knew, but our parents aren’t around anymore,” Shouri said. “I wanted Kairi to have memories of his school days, so maybe I went overboard, but I saved everything.”

Shouri then opened an album which was labeled “Kairi, High School: Year 2.” Article after article cut from a local newspaper recounted Kairi’s basketball game scores. A few pictures of Kairi and his friends were collected alongside them.

“Who’s that girl?” Keiichiro asked, pointing out a student who appeared in a couple of selfies with Kairi smattered throughout.

“Ah, Mai,” Shouri smiled. “I wonder how she’s doing… Kairi never said so, but I think she might have been his girlfriend.”

Keiichiro’s heart absolutely sunk, but he caught himself quickly. Even if Kairi had a girlfriend in high school, what did that have to do with anything now? What did it matter when Kairi hadn’t seemed to be dating anyone in the last year?

Shouri let out a laugh. “You should see your face, Keiichiro… Are you really jealous of a high school girl?”

“Jealous?” Keiichiro’s jaw dropped. “I’m not-- why would I be? It’s not like-- I just--”

“You really are, aren’t you?” Shouri’s smile seemed genuine for the first time since they met, even as his laughter died down. Keiichiro could feel his face burning red and hot, nevertheless. "It's alright, Keiichiro, as soon as I thought about it it became obvious that your concern with my brother is more personal than you let on. You don't have to say it because your face right now is saying it all."

"I'm sorry," Keiichiro said quickly with a clumsy bow of his head. There was no use in lying anymore. The only person who ever believed his lies about his feelings for Kairi in the first place was himself. "My feelings toward your brother... they're pure, I swear! He and I never discussed the matter, but if he's uninterested, I would never want to put him in a position where--"

“Your feelings are 'pure'?" Shouri laughed again. "That earnestness must be exhausting, really. Relax, your relationship with my brother isn't really any of my business, but for what it's worth, I’ve decided I approve of you. I’d normally never say this, but you’re kind of his type, you know?”

“I am?”

“Well, we’ll have to get to know one another a little better to be sure,” Shouri nodded, “But it seems to me that you’re awkward and a little self-righteous, aren’t you? I bet he had the best time teasing you. Let me guess, he had a nickname for you that he picked because it annoyed you.”

Keiichiro’s face would have gotten even hotter if that were possible. He kept his gaze looking anywhere but at Shouri. “He called me K-chan. It, uh, well, it grew on me I guess.”

The echo of Kairi calling out to him to promise to return in last night’s dream floated through his head for the briefest moment. Keiichiro told himself he'd come back to that thought later.

“K-chan?” Shouri laughed once more. For all the laughing he was doing, Keiichiro didn't really feel like it was all at his expense. “It suits you."

A beat passed before Shouri seemed to suddenly remember something. "Feel free to keep looking through those, but what I really wanted to give you was this…” He reached into his apron pocket and pulled out a small wax paper pouch. It had a small playing card stapled to the front, that Keiichiro recognized immediately as being a Lupinranger calling card. He let Shouri hand it to him.

The card, which he immediately tore off, had a silvery color backing, a clear sign it was from Noel. It read, “Your brother was always trying to be a better person. Maybe Officer Asaka will remember this?” So that was why Shouri had called him over. He tore open the wax paper and emptied the pouch into his hand. A single hair elastic with a strawberry charm fell into his palm.

He remembered this charm. It looked just like the one the little girl he and Kairi had met at the hot spring resort had lost. Why did Kairi have one? How did Noel get it? Why would he want Keiichiro to have it? Why wouldn’t Noel just give it to him personally?

“So I guess it doesn’t mean much to you either based on your face,” Shouri’s face fell a little.

“I remember this, but I don’t understand.” Keiichiro turned it over in his palm a few times. Would the mysteries of Kairi Yano ever make sense to him? Why would this be how Noel chose to communicate with him, after being completely off the grid? What did any of it mean?

“Have you gotten any other messages like this?” He held the card up, but couldn’t read the wide-eyed expression Shouri made in reply. The latter only shrugged, so Keiichiro guessed not. “If you do, please contact me immediately.”

Shouri nodded somewhat noncommittally. At that moment, the oven timer went off and Shouri sprang up to open the oven. “Would you like a croissant, officer? I’ll make tea, you can tell me about my brother’s case and I can show you some truly embarrassing elementary school photos of Kairi. How does that sound?”

Despite the nagging questions in the back of his mind that he wanted to dig into immediately, Keiichiro had to admit that it sounded lovely. He’d stay a while and figure this hair elastic thing out later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, i'm so sorry that i haven't been writing.... i appreciate all the comments you all have been leaving though, they mean the world to me!! i hope this awkward supportive brother shouri content (and flustered gay k-chan) were worth the wait....


	8. take a bullet to the heart just to keep you safe

“Keiichiro, we need to talk.” Tsukasa’s sudden voice pulled Keiichiro from his thoughts the next Monday afternoon. He’d been sitting at a bench outside the GSPO headquarters, taking his lunch break, but certainly not eating. 

He wasn’t hungry. There was too much on his mind, and a pink child’s hair accessory in his blazer pocket; more than enough to mull over. Besides, it’s not like he could go to his favorite lunch spot, anymore, maybe ever.

Turning his attention to Tsukasa, Keiichiro blinked at the sun behind her before sliding down the bench to give her space to sit. She obliged, sitting beside him and offering him a can of coffee, which he accepted with a nod, as she popped the tab on her own can.

“What’s going on with you?” Tsukasa asked, after a sip.

“I don’t know what you’re talking--”

“That nonsense might work with Sakuya, but I’m not Sakuya.” She cut him off, startling him. Keiichiro met her eyeline, and the gaze he found himself under was disapproving and harsh, giving him the distinct feeling that he was in trouble. His posture straightened in response.

“I’m sorry,” He muttered. “I’ve just been distracted lately.”

Her gaze softened, but only slightly.

“Shouri Yano.” She said simply. It was both an answer to the question she hadn’t asked and a mild accusation. As the name left Tsukasa’s mouth, Keiichiro was certain that she somehow knew where he’d spent a good amount of his Saturday afternoon.

The time he’d spent at the Yanos’ small apartment had left Keiichiro feeling better. Shouri had shown him pictures and told him stories about the young man they were both missing. 

In their previous meetings, at the hospital, Keiichiro had sensed something of animosity between himself and Shouri: a feeling like he wasn’t allowed to miss Kairi because of course Shouri missed him more. However, as Keiichiro sat with Shouri a few days prior, sharing memories and trading affectionate observations about Kairi, it began to feel like their loss was collective. It was like Shouri had accepted that Kairi could mean as much to someone else, and Keiichiro was touched, but now missing Kairi all the more.

More importantly, however, Keiichiro had left the Yano brothers’ apartment with a sense that perhaps he had known more about Kairi than he’d originally thought. It seemed that although Kairi had been careful to seem cheerful and sunny to Keiichiro when they met as civilians, over time, Kairi had shown him all his sides. Little by little, the anger, confusion and heartbrokenness of Lupin Red was making sense as it harmonized with the stubbornness, playfulness and charisma of Kairi Yano. From the few months it had been since the realization that they were one in the same, Keiichiro was finally beginning to really make sense of the fact that Kairi Yano was Lupin Red and that Lupin Red was Kairi Yano.

Noel’s last words to him had been playing a lot in Keiichiro’s mind the last few days.  _ “It seems to me, Keiichiro, that there is very little that anyone could know about Kairi that you don’t.”  _

He had known them both-- both, Kairi Yano, the complicated young man, and Lupin Red, the mysterious but determined vigilante-- so intimately, so fully in their own regards, that it seemed the only thing he hadn’t known was that they were the same person. With that last puzzle piece finally falling in place, Keiichiro was beginning to see the whole picture, and he couldn’t help but stand in awe of what he was seeing.

And he no longer had the strength or desire to deny that what he felt for him was love.

“Yeah,” Keiichiro confirmed. “I’ve been distracted by Shouri, but also, just… everything else.”

“Like the fact that you’re having nightmares about Kairi?”

The shock and betrayal must have been evident on his face, as Tsukasa smirked cryptically in return. Even if it felt like his partner was sometimes all-knowing and like she could see straight through him, this was a next level deduction, one which she had no way of knowing.

“You talk in your sleep and Sakuya’s got a big mouth, dummy.” She bumped his shoulder with his, playfully, with a smile that still held pity. “Don’t worry, I’m not reading your mind just yet… But don’t underestimate me, I’m sure I’ll be able to one day.”

Keiichiro tried to find relief in that at least. “Dreams, not nightmares. Well, not  _ exactly  _ nightmares anyway.”

She nodded and hummed in acknowledgement, but didn’t press him to elaborate. “I also heard that maybe,” Tsukasa hesitated. It was unlike her and Keiichiro was worried about what she might be about to share, but just as his anxiety swelled, she supplied him with his worst fear. “I heard you admitted you loved him.” 

“Since when are you and Sakuya so chummy anyway?” He sputtered, wanting to change the subject as quickly as possible. Although it was true, and that he’d accepted it, that didn’t mean he wanted to discuss it with Tsukasa. The heat on his cheeks said it all, he was sure, or at least that was his reasoning for not responding directly.

“I’ll have you know that Sakuya is very worried about you, Keiichiro.” She chided. “But this isn’t about us. You don’t have to say it again, but I think you should acknowledge it at least, so you can start healing from it.”

“Healing from it?”

“You’ve suffered a loss, Keiichiro.” Tsukasa gently rested one of her hands on Keiichiro’s shoulders in a motherly, caring way. “It’s hard enough when you’ve lost someone you care about, but to realize that they weren’t who you thought and that you love them? You must have the burden of a heavy heart.”

“Tsukasa, I’ve dealt with all that already,” He smiled gently, as he pulled her hand away. She looked confused, but not at his words. Her eyes were trained on the back of his hand, and the welts and scars that marred the back of it. Realizing this, he pulled his hand away, but she was too fast and caught it, pulling it between them and 

“You’ve dealt with that, huh? So what’s going on with this?” Her harsh knowing glare was back. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on with you--  _ all _ of what’s going on with you-- I won’t be able to help. Don’t carry this, whatever it is, alone, Keiichiro.”

All of it? Tell Tsukasa about the dreams, and  _ La Ficelle Rouge,  _ and the weirdness with Noel and the calling card linking him to the hair elastic-- something that there was no reason anyone but Kairi would know about? Tell her about his theories? His worries? The realizations he’d made over the last few months?

As Keiichiro considered all of this, he realized that he didn’t really have a good reason not to, beyond the scolding he would inevitably get from her for keeping it all to himself in the first place. That scolding, he also realized, was coming whether or not he shared, so he might as well get her insights and perspectives on the matters as well. After all, Tsukasa was a sharp detective, and Keiichiro had nothing but mysteries on his hands (literally).

He heaved one final sigh. “Lunch is almost over, and we have that briefing on the Gangler remnants spotted on the outskirts of town soon. I’ll tell you everything, but… It’s a bit of a long story. Do you have dinner plans?”

“I do now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what is up, my dudes??? i'm so sorry that it took me so long to get back to this... it's just... you know when you want to do something right, and have this perfect vision of how it's going to play out in your head... a vision so perfect that you could never actually make something like that in a million years if you tried, so you just... don't try?
> 
> yeah that was me for the last four months. but. i'm tired of living like that, so please accept this imperfect mess.
> 
> i hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and recognizing that the world is in a state of chaos, so take joy in the things that bring you it and don't mind anyone pressuring you to be "productive." existing is enough, and you're doing a great job of it, i promise~


	9. the words that would mend the things that were broken

The weight of Keiichiro’s confessions hung around the pair in their corner booth of the innocuous family restaurant they stumbled into after work that day. The vinyl of the booth was a sticky red, and the sun setting behind the window to their left made the whole ordeal feel even more dramatic as he waited for Tsukasa's response. She sipped her tea quietly, taking his story all in: the dreams, Noel, the mysterious collection piece… everything.

“ _ La Ficelle Rouge _ ?” Tsukasa finally repeated, contemplatively. The food between them was getting cold, but neither seemed to care much, it wasn’t that good anyway.

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “I don’t know exactly what it does or why it works that way, but I’ll go to sleep, have a weird dream and when I wake up…” He held his welted left hand up, the thick scarred skin in stark contrast to the smoothness of his right.

“And Noel… he just gave you that collection piece?” She didn’t sound disbelieving, which Keiichiro took as a good sign. Even as he’d recalled it all, it sounded outlandish.

“Noel is up to something, that’s for sure.” He pushed halfheartedly at the vegetables on the table between them. “He’s going to come back for it at some point, I think, so why give it to me at all? When have you ever known any of the Lupinrangers, even Noel, to give willingly any of us a collection piece?”

“Well, I mean, that day, didn’t Kairi give you...”

“Okay, fair point.” He muttered, cutting her off. 

_ That day. _ Of course he hadn’t forgotten about that day, how could he? It seemed that Kairi’s running off was never going to stop haunting him, and the fact that before he’d left, he entrusted Keiichiro with his precious collection pieces was something he’d spent so long trying to not dwell on it had finally, if momentarily, worked.

It happened pretty frequently with details about Kairi and their last days together recently. He’d push them so far out of his head, that every now and again, the memories would push back and he’d be struck with old news all over again, hear Kairi’s voice loud and clear, remember with crystal clarity the way the tears not quite ready to spill reflecting the sunrise, feel the weight of Kairi’s collection piece in his hand. And then he’d do the only thing he could, take a deep breath and move on.

“You’re right about Noel, though,” Tsukasa said, pulling him back to reality. She pulled a paper napkin from the dispenser on the table and took a pen from her trench coat pocket. He watched with fascination as she started writing words and drawing lines between them, brow creased with concentration.

“He’s a part of this for sure.” She turned the napkin around so Keiichiro could read it more clearly. At the top she’d written Noel’s name, connected separately by downward lines to the words _Shouri Yano_ _(bait?), La Ficelle Rouge (distraction?) _and _Lupin Estate (loyalty?)_ respectively.

Keiichiro took the napkin into his hand to read more closely, but he still didn’t fully understand. “You think the Lupin Estate is involved in whatever it is he’s up to?”

“Of course,” She sighed. “It’s like you don’t even pay attention when we’re bringing in the Gangler remnants anymore. We haven’t found a single Gangler with a collection piece in months, Keiichiro. How unlikely is that, it’s obvious that someone is getting to them first.”

He thought back on the last few Ganglers, and she was right. “But he couldn’t be that fast, could he? He’s still GSPO, right, so if he’s stealing their collection pieces, why isn’t he also arresting them and turning them in?”

“That’s true, and it also doesn’t explain why he’s trying to get you to talk to Shouri Yano, either,” she said, defeated.

“I don’t know, maybe that part isn’t entirely about me,” Keiichiro said. “If Noel is leaving things for Shouri Yano… Do you think Aya Ohira or Shiho Ichinose have received surprises as well?”

“Now that sounds like an actionable lead for once… Good to have your brain back, detective,” Tsukasa said with a smile. He couldn’t help but return the expression.

“We’re in this together, okay, Keiichiro? No more secrets.”

“No more secrets.”

As they finally turned their attention back to their food, the two didn’t even notice the speed with which the pair in the booth next to theirs fled, careful to keep their backs turned on the officers as they paid their bill and slipped out into the dusk.

* * *

“Shouri, we’re screwed!” The slam of the door echoed off the high ceilings of the abandoned house at the edge of the city. Shouri, who was in the kitchen with a pair of scissors and the newspaper, didn’t even flinch at the shout.

“Kitchen!” He called out, voice showing no worry at the declaration.

“We’re screwed and it’s your fault!” Shiho whined once more, throwing herself onto one of the kitchen stools before burying her face in her arms on the counter. Aya sat beside her, rolling her eyes just a little and pantomiming to Shouri that their younger companion was being dramatic.

“Context, please?”

“We’re not screwed, yet, but that’s no thanks to you,” Aya explained, grabbing an apple from the bowl of fruit on the counter and biting into it leisurely. “We saw a couple of the Patorangers while we were out and eavesdropped on their dinner a little, and they’re almost on to us, no big deal.”

“No big deal?” Shiho repeated incredulously, but her voice was muffled as she refused to lift her head.

“What does ‘almost on to us’ mean?” Shouri asked, playfully flipping one of Shiho’s pigtails off the edge of the newspaper where it landed. 

“Ichi-gou and San-gou were saying they think Noel is up to something,” Aya explained between bites of apple. “Something about using you as bait to lure in Ichi-gou -- which by the way, why you thought getting him to your apartment was going to help you figure out what the GSPO knows is beyond me, that one’s a closed book and we all know it. Anyway, it sounds like they want to see if Shiho and I have gotten anything like you did… but you know we haven’t, because neither have you, really.”

“How was I supposed to know that stupid hair tie was actually significant?” Shouri sighed. “Noel just snagged me some random thing from Kairi’s belongings they cleaned out of the bistro. I thought for sure he’d try to talk through it a little more.”

“Well he didn’t.” Shiho sat up. “Maybe because you were too busy interviewing him for the position of your new brother-in-law that you forgot we have a mission--”

She was cut off when Shouri flicked her forehead. “So I miss my brother and it was nice to have someone to talk about him with, sue me. Like you don’t want to know what Umika-chan has been up to the last year? Like you haven’t bought train tickets to your hometown to see her parents?”

Aya clapped her hands to get their attention. “Bigger fish to fry here? Can we please sit down and get our story straight? We need to figure out if we should call Noel for more red herrings or not. And when they ask me if I know either of you, what do we say?”

“You’re right,” Shouri agreed. “Shiho, you take notes. Aya, start brainstorming questions they might ask you. I’m ordering takeout, this is gonna be a long night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things are goingggggggggg (i'm so sorry that it takes so long for me to write these chapters these days...) had a burst of energy after watching the ryusoulger x lupat movie raw that surfaced earlier this week!!! it was very, very good~
> 
> hope that you are staying safe and well and taking care of yourselves!


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